Glass Hearts
by kate avalanche
Summary: Hatter couldn't bear to stand by and watch his little Alice grow up to become one of them - one of the Hearts. But that's exactly what he must do if he wants a chance to save her, and possibly all of Wonderland.


He was twenty two the first time they met.

Technically, he was older than that, but time is a curious thing in Wonderland. Never behaves quite how you'd expect it to, and only occasionally behaves how you'd want it to. But he looked twenty two and acted twenty two, so he might as well have been.

She was six. Actually six, mind you. This was because she wasn't from Wonderland. She had only been a guest there for two and a half years, and that is hardly enough time to be considered a native.

It was this otherness that made her anything more than just another kid to him - Hatter was more big picture, less small detail - and kept pulling him back to the Hearts Casino.

The day Hatter first met Alice was the day he would look back on and wonder, fifteen years later, whether or not he should have turned and run in the other direction.

* * *

It was Friday, Hatter's usual day to visit the Heart family's base of operations, report on what he'd accomplished that week and receive assignments for the week to come. As he walked into the Casino and along the corridors, he was diving out of the way of people scuttling along as they carried all sorts of things - cakes, garlands of flowers, massive parcels wrapped in white paper and tied up in shiny red ribbons.

Normally Friday mornings were quiet in the Casino. Every cluster of harried looking people pushing another full cart or hefting another box only served to make him more and more curious as to the cause of all the chaos.

When he reached the council room, he had resolved to question Ace on the matter, but as he pushed open the doors, there was no one there.

"H'lo?" he called, thinking that maybe someone was in one of the side rooms branching off from the council room, "It's me - Hatter… S'anyone here?"

Glancing down at the long table, he saw a note in looping black script:

**Read Me**

He rolled his eyes and unfolded the note, reading it.

Hatter,

I trust you have completed your week's work satisfactorily. I am far too busy

today to meet with you personally, as is our customary arrangement. Do take a

moment this week to jot down how everything went and have it sent to me.

Attached is a list of the jobs I'll need done this week. We will resume our

usual schedule and I expect to see you Friday next.

Regards,

He turned the note over and realized there as a second sheet of paper. Hatter skimmed the to-do list Ace had left for him. Pretty standard stuff. Some black market deals, a bit of smuggling, a few odd jobs the Hearts didn't want to be traced back to them. In return, there was always a bit of money in his account, plenty for Hatter to do what he liked, when he liked. Not a bad setup if you didn't mind keeping strange hours and occasionally getting your hands dirty.

With the note and list tucked into the inside pocket of his waistcoat, he walked out of the council room and down the hall, dodging still more rushing people.

A few turns and a flight of stairs later and Hatter saw something that made him pause. Just there, in a smallish alcove, was the first person he'd seen that day not running as if a Bandersnatch were after them. In fact, she wasn't moving at all.

It was a little girl in a blue, ruffley party dress.

Cake. Decorations. Presents. The little girl in a party dress was the final puzzle piece.

* * *

"H'lo pet. Are you by any chance the cause of all this fuss?" the man asked, waving a hand at all the decorations.

Alice pushed her wispy hair out of her face as she stared at him with wide, blue eyes. She had never seen anyone like him before. He was so colorful, so bouncy, so…messy. She could tell just by his crooked smile and the way his hair poked out from under his hat.

Nobody in the Casino was messy. She didn't think the queen would allow it. Off with their heads, she'd say - but only when she thought Alice couldn't hear.

Alice heard a lot more than people thought.

"…you can talk, can't you?" he said.

"Oh! Yeah - I mean yes sir," she blinked those eyes - too wide to look at home in her little face - and she curtsied neatly.

Hatter burst out laughing, "Never been called 'sir' before! And certainly never been curtsied at neither. I'm Hatter, girlie," he tipped his hat and flipped it up in the air, pausing until it landed squarely back on his head, "and you would be?"

"Alice."

"Alice? That's not a Wonderland name," he frowned thoughtfully, "That's a Looking-Glass name. Alice, where are you from?"

"What's a looking glass? What's wrong with my name?" she was worried she had done something wrong, and she wanted Hatter to like her. He was the first person who talked with her instead of just telling her what to do.

The frown vanished and he took her hands, giving them a small squeeze before saying, "Nothing, Alice is a fantastic name. None better! Fits you like a glove."

* * *

The smile that split across her face did strange things to Hatter. He'd never seen someone look that genuinely happy before. He found himself wanting to make her smile like that all the time, and wondering what it would sound like when she laughed.

It had been years since he'd heard a laugh - a real one, not one that was fake and forced or that had spite behind it.

Then and there, he decided to befriend this odd little girl, this Alice, and see if they couldn't bring a bit of life back into this corner of Wonderland where everyone was half mad and half scared senseless.

"Where is that blasted brat?" a voice cut through Hatter's thoughts.

Two clubs walked past, obviously searching for someone. Almost certain - though not sure why - that it was Alice they were after, he smoothly sidestepped in from of her, hiding the girl behind his long jacket.

"You! Have you seen a little girl? Brown hair, blue dress?" they barked at him.

He smiled and said easily, "Sorry mate, can't say as I have."

He felt a small hand clutch at the back of his coat and silently willed her to be still. The clubs scowled at him for a moment longer before shrugging and moving on to continue their search. Hatter waited until the trip-trap of their shoes on the polished floors had faded before he turned around.

"Than you," she said in a small voice, barely above a whisper.

"So it was you they were looking for. Miss Alice," he knelt down to be on her eye level, "I believe there's more to you than meets the eye."

He held out his hand to her. When she slipped her hand into his, Hatter jolted at the sudden wave of strangeness coming from her. She might have looked like any other girl her age, but Hatter knew otherwise.

"Do you like chocolate?" he asked, "and cream cake?"

When she nodded eagerly, Hatter stood up and gave her one of his manic grins.

"Next time I see you, we'll have heaps of both."

And maybe I can figure out just what it is about you, he thought to himself, why you make me want to run away and take care of you all at the same time.

* * *

Even after the long trip home, there was something about his conversation with that girl nagging at his mind. Something about her bothered him - something more than just the strangeness of her name. There was a strangeness to her whole being that he couldn't explain away or ignore.

By the end of the day, the curiosity had wormed its way too deep to be put off anymore. He knew he was going to have to find answers, and soon, or he'd go mad.

Finally, exhaustion won and his eyes fell shut. But first thing in the morning, he'd decided, he would be making another trip - this time to an entirely different place, one that the Hearts would kill to find.

* * *

"I'm here to return a book. It's a work of Edwin and Morcar."

A thin, rattling voice came from the other side of the door, "How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail?"

Impatient, Hatter spat out, "He pours the waters of the Nile on every golden scale."

With a metallic shriek and a wheeze, the door swung open.

"Can never be too careful, David, my boy," the old man said, his face crinkled into a warm smile.

"How many times do I have to say it, Hedgehog?" he sighed as he followed the man through the door, latching it tightly behind him, "It's Hatter now."

"I've been calling you David since you were toddling around pissing yourself, boy, and I'll keep calling you David for as long as I want."

Hatter tugged at his cowlick in frustration. His mother's old friends were all convinced they had raised him and could talk to him however they liked.

"Now I know you didn't come here just to roll your eyes at an old fart. What do you need?"

Right. He'd spent all night dreaming the encounter with the girl over and over, he may as well get the answers he came for and let the whole stupid thing go.

"I need to know about the Looking-Glass world."

"Strange thing to develop a sudden interest in," Hedgehog led Hatter along the hallway and down between haphazard stacks and piles of books, "but I'm sure we've got a few books about it here somewhere. Anything about it in particular?"

"I need to find out about a girl named Alice."

The old man stopped short the moment that name left Hatter's lips.

"What the blazes do you think you're playing at, messing around with Alices?" his filmy eyes were fixed on Hatter, as if staring hard enough would give him the power to read his mind.

"Nothing!" he said, hoping the lie wasn't plain on his face, "I heard someone at the Casino talking about it and you know me - nosy as hell."

The look Hedgehog gave him was long, stern, and very suspicious. Hatter gave him his best foolish grin and shrugged, and finally, the old man gestured for him to follow as they set off again.

They would wander - seemingly without direction - until Hedgehog would screech to a half and run a knobbly finger along a dusty spine of some book or another. He would ease it out of the pile, leaf through the pages, and either add it to the growing heap in Hatter's harms or slip it back where he had found it. His motions were always weighty and deliberate. It was clear he viewed the books with a certain reverence.

Once the stack in Hatter's arms was almost too tall to see over, Hedgehog chuckled.

"That's it, that's everything. Sure you don't need some help there, boy?"

"Sure, you can have the whole pile!" he laughed at the look on the old man's face, "No, I'm fine Hedge. Thanks for all of these."

"Anything for Miriam's boy," he said, his smile turning sad for a flash, "Now off with you, and mind you bring those books back without - "

" - without so much as a scratch," he finished for him, "I know."

* * *

Later that night, Hatter stationed himself in the center of his floor and read through every one of those books, hunting for any scrap of information on past Alices. Not only was he curious because of his own interaction with an Alice, but Hedgehog's reaction to the name had him ravenous for answers.

Most of the entries related to Alices were vague, self-contradictory, or had a distinct feeling of revisionist history to them. Instead of discouraging him, this only made him surer that he was on to something big. Something no one in power wanted to get out.

Clearly Alices had power here. There were mentions of other Looking-Glass people stumbling in to Wonderland and none of them ever kicked up a fuss. No, there was something about these girls

So what were the Hearts plotting? Why were they keeping a child who, given the record of girls like her, posed a massive threat to their power?

Hatter wasn't sure he would like the answer if and when he found out.

* * *

As much of an effect as Alice had had on Hatter, he had made an even greater impression on her. All through her birthday, he as all she could think about. Through cake and presents, her mind kept going back to his promise of chocolate and cream cake the next time he saw her.

The next time.

How Alice wished he had told her when that would be.

She wanted to tell someone about the whole thing, see if anyone could give her more about him - a story, anything - but she never managed to get a word in edgewise.

For a day all about her, it sure felt like it was for everybody else.

"Good morning, Alice!" one of the doors of her room was open and a woman in a Diamond uniform stood there, obviously waiting for her to say something back.

"Good morning," she answered.

It would be no good asking her about Hatter. Even if she did know something, Alice had learned a long time ago that the Diamonds never answered questions the way you wanted them to. They would say something else that sort of sounded like an answer, but didn't tell you anything real. Or worse, they went to the queen to tell her what Alice had asked, and Alice had a strong feeling that talking to Hatter was something she wasn't supposed to have done.

As the woman went to the closet to pull out clothes for the day, Alice swung her feet over the side of the bed and wondered, was that why she liked Hatter so much? Because she knew she wasn't meant to have talked with him?

" - really, I don't know where your head is today, but it sure isn't here. I feel like I'm just talking to myself."

Alice tuned her out again as she put on the dress that was laid out for her and went back to what she had been thinking about all last night - why did Hatter seem so different from everyone else she'd met, and why did that matter so much to her?

* * *

It was weeks since Hatter had made his promise to her, and Alice still hadn't heard a word from him. She had waited very patiently and hadn't mentioned it to anyone, so she didn't think anyone was making sure that he _couldn't_ come and see her. He just _wasn't_. And that bothered her.

Maybe he had been lying to her?

But he didn't seem like a liar when they talked. At least not to her. He lied to the Clubs, but they were nasty people, and she lied to them too.

She had decided by now that he either forgot and would come when he remembered or that he was a captive of a horrible beast and would come as soon as he had escaped its evil clutches.

Alice hoped for the second one. It was much more exciting.


End file.
